- “Buckle Up” — Bitcoin And Crypto Brace For “Crazy” Week As Gold, Silver And Copper Prices Swing
Source: Forbes
“Bitcoin has dropped sharply over the last few weeks of 2025, losing 30% since hitting an all-time high in October (even as U.S. Treasury secretary Scott Bessent reveals a price game-changer). The bitcoin price has found a floor at just under $90,000 per bitcoin, failing to climb in last couple of weeks along with gold, silver, copper and other commodities that have made huge gains—potentially paving the way for a huge bitcoin price boom in 2026. Now, after a $3 trillion stock market warning suddenly flashed red, the bitcoin price and crypto market is braced for a ‘crazy week’ after the silver price dropped 10% in just over an hour.” (12/29/25)
- Iran: Protests erupt over currency’s plunge to record low
Source: Associated Press
“Iran’s largest protests in three years erupted Monday after the country’s currency plummeted to a record low against the U.S. dollar, and the head of the Central Bank resigned. State TV reported the resignation of Mohammad Reza Farzin, while traders and shopkeepers rallied in Saadi Street in downtown Tehran as well as in the Shush neighborhood near Tehran’s main Grand Bazaar. Merchants at the market played a crucial role in the 1979 Islamic Revolution that ousted the monarchy and brought Islamists to power. The official IRNA news agency confirmed the protests.” (12/29/25)
https://apnews.com/article/iran-traders-protest-rial-currency-ddc955739fb412b642251dee10638f03
- Ukraine: Regime denies drone attack on Putin’s residence
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“President Volodymyr Zelensky has denied allegations by Russia that Ukraine launched a drone attack on one of President Vladimir Putin’s residences, and accused Moscow of trying to derail peace talks. Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov claimed Kyiv had launched an attack overnight using 91 long-range unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) on Putin’s state residence in Russia’s northwestern Novgorod region. Russia said it would now review its position in peace negotiations. It is not yet clear where Putin was at the time of the alleged attack. Zelensky dismissed the claim as ‘typical Russian lies,’ intended to give the Kremlin an excuse to continue attacks on Ukraine. He said that Russia had previously targeted government buildings in Kyiv.” (12/29/25)
- Trump Says US Regime Struck a “Big Facility” in Illegal War on Venezuela
Source: New York Times
“President Trump said in a radio interview that the United States had knocked out ‘a big facility’ last week as part of his administration’s campaign against Venezuela, an apparent reference to an American attack on a drug trafficking site. American officials said that Mr. Trump was referring to a drug facility in Venezuela and that it was eliminated, but provided no details. Military officials said they had no information to share, and the Central Intelligence Agency declined to comment. The White House declined to comment. … If Mr. Trump’s suggestion that the United States had struck a site in the region proves accurate, it would be the first known attack on land since he began his military campaign against Venezuela.” (12/28/25)
- Dog bites man: Myanmar’s pro-junta party claims huge win in first phase of junta-run poll
Source: KTEN News
“Myanmar’s dominant pro-military party claimed an overwhelming victory in the first phase of the country’s junta-run elections, a senior party official told AFP, after democracy watchdogs warned the poll would entrench military rule. The armed forces snatched power in a 2021 coup, but on Sunday opened voting in a phased month-long election they pledge will return power to the people. ‘We won 82 lower house seats in townships which have finished counting, out of the total of 102,’ a senior official of the Union Solidarity and Development Party told AFP. … At the last poll in 2020 the USDP was trounced by Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD), which was dissolved after the coup and did not appear on Sunday’s ballots. The Nobel laureate has been in detention since the putsch, which triggered a civil war.” (12/29/25)
- Celebrating People’s Freedom Doesn’t Require You to Celebrate the Ways They Use that Freedom
Source: I Blog to Differ
by David R Henderson“I received feedback from a friend that made me wonder if he had misunderstood my argument against compulsory labeling of foods’ ingredients. He referred me to a post that makes the case that seed oils are bad for our health. So I think it’s worthwhile to explore an issue that I discussed on EconLog back in January 2012. Here’s what I wrote: I’ve noticed in discussions–in person, on Facebook, and in blogs–how hard it is for most people to see that opposition to having the government subsidize or require activity X does not mean that one opposes activity X. … One can strongly object to the use of illegal drugs and yet think they should be legal. One can strongly object to U.S. taxpayers being forced to subsidize Israel’s government without being ‘anti-Israel.'” (12/29/25)
https://davidrhenderson.substack.com/p/celebrating-peoples-freedom-doesnt
- Trump, Treason, and the New York Times
Source: JimBovard.com
by James Bovard“On Tuesday, President Trump denounced the New York Times in a Truth Social post as a ‘serious threat to the National Security of our Nation’ and a ‘TRUE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE’ for publishing an article detailing Trump’s close personal relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. … That was the Times’s second recent treasonous offense. After the Times published a story on how 79-year-old Trump was ‘slowing down physically’ and ‘showing signs of fatigue’ in his second term … rump proclaimed that ‘it’s seditious, perhaps even treasonous, for The New York Times, and others, to consistently do FAKE reports in order to libel and demean ‘THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.’’ … Trump is using practically a mirror image of treason compared to the standard the Founding Fathers canonized.” (12/29/25)
https://jimbovard.com/blog/2025/12/29/trump-treason-and-the-new-york-times/
- The New Surveillance State Is You
Source: Wired
by Andrew Couts“Privacy isn’t dead. Just ask Kristi Noem. The Department of Homeland Security secretary has spent 2025 trying to convince the American public that identifying roving bands of masked federal agents is ‘doxing’ — and that revealing these public servants’ [sic] identities is ‘violence.’ Noem is wrong on both fronts, legal experts say, but her claims of doxing highlight a central conflict in the current era: Surveillance now goes both ways. … ‘ICE watch’ groups have appeared across the country. Apps for tracking immigration enforcement activity have popped up on (then disappeared from) Apple and Google app stores. Social media feeds are awash in videos of unidentified agents tackling men in parking lots, throwing women to the ground, and ripping families apart. From Los Angeles to Chicago to Raleigh, North Carolina, neighbors and passersby have pulled out their phones to document members of their communities being arrested and vanishing into the Trump administration’s machinery.” (12/29/25)
- Trump’s Tariffs Run the Whiskey River Dry
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Douglas E French“Jim Beam has been making whiskey for a long time, through thick and thin. But the Trump tariffs have shut down the venerable distillery. Bourbon Whiskey is a high-order (as Austrian economists would say) beverage due to the aging process required. Jim Beam is aged for four years in new charred oak barrels. Jim Beam Black is aged 7 years. … The uncertainty created by today’s tariffs will create scarcity (and higher prices) of lower order goods (in this case whiskey) in the future.” (12/29/25)
https://mises.org/power-market/trumps-tariffs-run-whiskey-river-dry
- The Winding Road to Prosperity
Source: Law & Liberty
by Asheesh Agarwal“Why, in the previous Millennium, did Europe come to dominate the world, rather than China, India, or some other region? How did the Catholic Church, the legal profession, and the fall of the Roman Empire all set the stage for Europe’s eventual global supremacy? Meanwhile, in today’s age of AI, rockets, and robots, how can societies continue to innovate and prosper, rather than stagnate and decay? In Two Paths to Prosperity, Joel Mokyr, a 2025 Nobel laureate and professor at Northwestern University, offers a compelling narrative.” (12/29/25)
https://lawliberty.org/book-review/the-winding-road-to-prosperity/
- Systems of Trust
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Benjamin BH Ko‘On the Isle of Lewis, crofters still work the old way: one man, two dogs, a flock and the Atlantic wind. Watching Leslie and his collies, Bruce and Jude, round up sheep across the moor, I was struck by how little command was needed. After a whistle and a word, Bruce and Jude’s instincts took care of the rest. It was order without control, and freedom within purpose. This is liberty properly understood.” (12/29/25)
- To restore hope for families in poverty, let states lead on welfare reform
Source: The Hill
“The United States is a generous nation, and most agree that low-income households deserve help from their fellow Americans when times are tough. But that help should not inadvertently trap people in poverty and government dependence by disincentivizing healthy, working-age adults from working more hours, pursuing higher wages, or marrying out of fear of ending up financially worse off. … The need for reform is clear, as we recently argued in a report along with several colleagues. The solutions and how to enact them are less so. A common response is universal benefits or more government assistance higher up the income scale to allow for a more gradual phase out of benefits. But this approach creates more government dependence among American households rather than encouraging independence and hope. This would also require substantial new federal resources at a time when budget deficits are already unsustainable. That’s why we need a new approach that starts with the states.” (12/29/25)
https://thehill.com/opinion/congress-blog/5664894-state-led-welfare-innovation/
- Fewer Kids, More Admins? The Quiet Boom in K-12 Hiring That’s Pure Politics
Source: The Daily Economy
by Corey A DeAngelis“New research strongly suggests teachers’ unions are driving the skyrocketing administrative bloat that’s sucking resources away from classrooms. By diverting additional funding toward hiring more people, they starve effective educators of the raises and support they need, all to pad their own power structures. Unions benefit enormously from inflating the number of employees in the system, turning public schools into top-heavy bureaucracies that serve adults — not our kids. Teachers’ union bosses gain in two major ways from the rapid expansion in administrative hiring — which also siphons resources away from teachers, students, and classrooms.” (12/29/25)
- Are We Prometheans? “The Permanent Problem,” Reviewed
Source: Liberal Currents
by Samantha Hancox-Li“Something has gone wrong in America. By historical standards, we live in a time of unimaginable abundance. Yet there is a malaise, and we all feel it. The normal rules of normal politics no longer seem sufficient to answer our questions. The straitjacket of the Long 90’s is breaking: what will replace it? Enter Brink Lindsey’s The Permanent Problem. A vice president at the Niskanen Center, Lindsey diagnoses America’s malaise as a breakdown of two opposed forces: the dynamism of capitalism and the inclusiveness of communities. … According to Lindsey, we must recover the Promethean spirit — the willingness to go out and change the world, and use this to solve Keynes'[s] ‘permanent problem’ of ‘living wisely and agreeably and and well.'” (12/29/25)
- College Work
Source: ProSocial Libertarians
by Andrew Jason Cohen“I recently heard Jill Lepore, professor of history at Harvard University, on The Good Fight podcast. In discussing campus culture, she expressed dismay at the fact that some of her students had refused to read the Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision (1857), which she had assigned. They refused, apparently, because it would cause them (or perhaps others) pain to read a defense of slavery in the United States. … Students need to know — and do know — that they do not stand on desks in their classrooms, that they do not lecture to the class (unless the professor assigns that to them), and a host of other things. That has always included — and ought to still include — the simple fact that professors, like all teachers, make the assignments and they, the students, do them or get lower grades. This is simply how the institution works.” (12/29/25)
- How Reporting Facts Can Now Land You in Jail for 14 Years as a Terrorist
Source: Antiwar.com
by Jonathan Cook“Starmer’s UK government has set the most dangerous of precedents: it can now outlaw any political group it chooses as a terrorist organisation – and thereby make it impossible to defend it.” (12/29/25)
- Hating the rich may feel good (and win elections), but it’s self-destructive
Source: New York Post
by Jonathan Alpert“With a triumphant Zohran Mamdani taking over as New York City mayor Jan. 1, many of my patients tell me they finally feel ‘seen’ in their resentment toward the wealthy. The anger feels righteous and moral. But it’s rarely about tax policy, wages or housing. It’s merely emotional. It’s about envy, inadequacy and the relief that comes from blaming someone else rather than looking inward. Mamdani declared during the campaign, ‘I don’t think that we should have billionaires,’ and he’s chosen Sen. Bernie Sanders, who regularly rages about them, to administer the public oath of office at City Hall. In my therapy practice, I hear what plays out in the streets. Resentment of the wealthy has become emotional currency. It gives temporary relief from feelings people don’t want to confront. Hating billionaires feels noble, but psychologically it functions as a shortcut to moral superiority.” (12/27/25)
- Bail Reform Faces Backlash as Policymakers Move To Require Cash Bond for Pre-Trial Defendants
Source: Reason
by CJ Ciaramella“Critics of cash bail say it creates a two-tiered justice system: Those who can pay maintain their freedom, while those unable to pay remain behind bars.” (for publication 01/26)
- Quantum Vibe, 12/29/25
Source: Big Head Press
by Scott BieserCartoon. (12/29/25)
- They Feign Concern About Pro-Palestine Chants In Order To Shut Down Pro-Palestine Protests
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone“It’s such an insult to our intelligence how Israel supporters pretend it’s the WAY pro-Palestine protests are happening that they object to, and not the protests themselves. Like if protesters were saying different chants they’d be totally cool with opposition to Israel’s crimes. They’re like, ‘We’re not trying to suppress your free speech and stomp out criticism of Israel, we’re just concerned about slogans like ‘globalize the intifada’ and ‘from the river to the sea!’ We’re worried that expressions of support for Hamas and Hezbollah and Iran that we’ve seen in some demonstrations are going to cause acts of terrorism!’ Bullshit. Lies. They’re fucking lying. If they weren’t concern-trolling about ‘globalize the intifada’ they’d make up some other excuse to express their concern, and they know it. Their objection is to criticism of Israel, not to the way those criticisms are being expressed.” (12/29/25)
- Reason Roundtable, 12/29/25
- Conflicts of Interest, episode 862
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Kyle Anzalone“Zelensky Seeks a Back Door Into NATO.” (12/29/25)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/kyle/coi-862-zelensky-seeks-a-back-door-into-nato
- Rising, 12/29/25
Source: The Hill
“Robby Soave delivers radar on Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) bragging about a proposed wealth tax aimed at California residents worth more than $1 billion to pay a one-time tax equivalent to 5% of their assets that can be paid over five years.” (12/29/25)
https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/5665231-rising-december-29-2025/
- EconTalk, 12/29/25
Source: EconTalk
“In Defense of Intuition (with Gerd Gigerenzer).” (12/29/25)
https://www.econtalk.org/in-defense-of-intuition-with-gerd-gigerenzer/
- The Remnant with Jonah Goldberg, 12/29/25
Source: The Dispatch
“Intellectuals of the New Right | Interview: Laura Field.” (12/29/25)
https://thedispatch.com/podcast/remnant/intellectuals-of-the-new-right-interview-laura-field/
- Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 12/29/25
Source: Antiwar.com
“US Bombs Nigeria and Somalia on Christmas, Trump: Ukraine Territorial Issues Not Settled, and More.” (12/29/25)
- Pink Flame of Liberty, 12/28/25
Source: Pink Flame of Liberty
“I was in a Politicall Cult.” (12/28/25)